General access conditions

Registration

Use of the Centre is open to all and is free of charge. On your first visit to use archives you will be required to complete a research application form and to prove your identity. Acceptable forms of proof include university card, passport, driving licence and County Archive Research Network (CARN) ticket. You will then be given a copy of the research application form as your proof of registration.

The Centre keeps a copy of the form to compile statistics relating to the use of the Centre, to remain aware of current research interests, and to maintain current contact details for its researchers. The forms are destroyed when they are three years old. You will be required to complete a new research application form every academic year (August-July).

Under the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018 we are also required to seek your permission to hold the information contained on the registration forms. There is therefore a separate GDPR permissions form to sign when you register.

Searchroom rules

When using the Centre you must abide by our rules. We have these rules to ensure that the material which we hold, much of which is irreplaceable, is preserved for present and future researchers like you, and to maintain our searchroom as a place for quiet study. The rules require that you:

Do

Enter your details in our visitors’ book each day you visit

Leave your bag and/or coat in the lockers provided or with the searchroom supervisor

Use pencil, a laptop or a tablet to make notes when consulting archives

Handle all material carefully

Support the spines of volumes with a book rest or cushion

Keep items within files or bundles in the order in which you found them

Ask the searchroom supervisor for permission if you wish to take photographs of documents

Show consideration for other users by keeping conversation and other sound to a minimum

Do not

Have any food, liquid or smoking material with you whilst in the searchroom

Use pens and ink when consulting archives

Lean on documents, or rest papers or notepads on them whilst making notes

Mark documents in any way

Use a mobile phone to make or receive calls

Use a tape recorder (except by special arrangement)

Use a scanner on the documents (all copying of archival material, except by hand-held photography, must be done by Centre staff)

Have more than 3 archival files or other items at your desk at a time (except with the permission of the searchroom supervisor)

Take archive boxes to your desk (except with the permissionof the searchroom supervisor)

Modern Records Centre
University Library
University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom